Fox Hosts Hate Group Leader To Attack New Immigration Policy

Today, the Fox "straight news" program America Live hosted Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), to discuss the legality of President Obama's new immigration policy, which will potentially exempt certain young undocumented immigrants from deportation and allow them to work here legally.

Unsurprisingly, Stein spent the interview, which also included immigration attorney Francisco Hernandez, falsely suggesting the change in immigration policy is lawless. Stein characterized the change as an "outrageous power grab" and said that "the president's responsibility is to faithfully execute the laws of the United States. He does not have the right to completely rewrite the immigration law, give out these kinds of benefits."

However, as Hernandez pointed out, the policy shift is an exercise of prosecutorial discretion that is consistent with current law. Indeed, American Immigration Lawyers Association president David Leopold explained in a report that "[a]ll law enforcement agencies" have prosecutorial discretion, "including those that enforce immigration laws." As Penn State law professor Shaba Sivaprasad Wadhia noted in a 2009 article, immigration authorities have been using prosecutorial discretion to stop deportation proceedings for more than 30 years.

Furthermore, the new policy is consistent with decades of immigration law.

This is not the first time Fox has given a platform to Stein. In August 2011, America's Newsroomhosted him to attack Obama's immigration policy and defend Alabama's controversial immigration law. In March 2011, Fox & Friends hosted him to push the myth that women come to the U.S. solely to give birth.

Right-wing media outlets are parroting the attacks of an anti-LGBTQ hate group on Connecticut’s openly gay comptroller, Kevin Lembo. Lembo recently sent the American Family Association (AFA) a letter asking the group to submit written documentation certifying it complies with the nondiscrimination regulations governing the Connecticut State Employee Campaign for Charitable Giving (CSEC), which allows Connecticut State employees to contribute to qualifying non-profit charities through payroll deductions. Lembo’s office has since been “flooded” with emails and phone calls from AFA supporters.